Excellent efforts all. Thanks everyone who contributed.
Since it doesn’t look like it will be long before we get our hands on these prototypes, are there any volunteers to take screenshots and/or videos of the prototypes in action? I was thinking of setting up a gallery of ‘differences’ between the prototypes and final versions (if there does turn out to be some). Unfortunately my TV capture card is… not the best. Suggestions are welcome for this differences section.
Confirmation number: 3WF36828LK2902731
$49.50.
Yes, I apologise it isn’t the full $50 I pledged, but I put enough into the bank account for the current exchange rate according to xe.com, only for PayPal to come up with a different figure. If this is a problem I’ll sort out the extra 50c on Monday when the banks reopen.
Solo Wing Dragon - $50
Dragon Phoenix - $50
Scott - $30
Grumbler - $25
alavaliant - $150
Saturn_Worship - $70
Lance Way - $50+$50
Gehpnaet - $25
Heretic Agnostic - $100
roushimsx - $100
Shadow - $50
Total: $750
Great work, guys 
Some update on the discs: I’m currently dumping all of the discs, each one takes 1-2 hours, it’s lots of fun 
I’ve been doing it all day and I’m almost finished.
I’m uploading (slowly… my upload sucks) the first disc (PDS 1, the earliest proto) to my server. After it’s uploaded, I will send a link to all donators.
When it’s all uploaded, hopefully on Saturday or Sunday (I will be out of town on Monday-Wednesday), I will post a torrent with everything for everyone else to download.
Don’t sweat it, it’s perfectly alright. I know paypal can be a bitch. Any 50c is not a groundbreaking amount anyway Plus, I’m already contributing $100 + paypal fees + shipping + insurance so 50c really doesn’t make much of a difference
WHAT!!?!!?
How could you even consider depriving this cause of 50c! This is whole new level of unethicalness!
I’d like to, but I haven’t got a saturn modchip handy so I’d be stuck playing via SSF like I’m sure most other people here will be. Shame, because some direct capture video footage would be pretty snazzy. Maybe a future revision of the emulator will support input saving and video dumping for super clean, full frame video love.
Never hurts to wish!
(I don’t have my hopes high that Fraps + SSF will yield pleasurable results)
hey friends, a friend of mine very into art can make some photoshop saturn or cd like cover for the protos… what do you think???
yeah, we will take pics firstly by emulator…later…let’s see if we can use our saturns…
I’m probably going to need to pick up a SCART to composite converter at some point anyway as I’ve just got a new capture card (Intensity Pro). So if I get one and can get the disc swap trick to work we’ll see what I can come up with.
Hey guys, an update:
I have sent out a link to the PDS1 proto to all people who have donated so far, to the emails you used to donate the money (so the emails used with paypal). If you have any problems, questions, email/PM me
I have spent a whole day yesterday dumping and I’ve properly dumped all the prototypes and I’m slowly uploading them to my server for seeding the torrent and a HTTP link for donators. I have dumped each prototype at least 4 times, with different drives, tools, etc. so they aren’t bad dumps.
Anyway, just $50 to go and we can go through with the thing.
cool got an email and link thanks
i got my satrun connected to my monitor with S-video cable (liiks beautifulllll) so i’ll try out the swap trick…
failing that the emulator it is!
first impressions:
caravan music for when edge starts underground (haha weird feelign atmosphere)
shoulder buttons are to move dragon (i think, or i migth have forgotten my keybindings) and cruise mode is implemented as standard
I need a pad… looks good so far though!! cant wait to play through it!
a lot of things are different,but now too much…
the world map is different… the village of cainus doesn’t show, it shows some kind of camp. also on the camp there’s the zwei recorder device… (there is a zwei save file on my saturn…maybe is for that)…
playing it on a pal console sucks because of the border…but well… gash seems a little different, the atmosphere when you see the captain is different, to record the game… just sve file and doens’t tell you if save or not…after you look on the saturn memory and there’s the file “azel panzer dragoon debug” wich is a save…
the start button menu isn’t allowed to check items monsters etc
this is truly EXCITING!!!
can’t wait for more demos…
I’m sorry to disappoint a bit, but I only have a 10kB/s upload and I’ve got 2GB to upload yet. So by my calculations, if I uploaded 24/7, I would upload everything on Monday.
I’ll be away Monday-Wednesday so it seems that the release will have to be done on Wednesday/Thursday. Well it gives the people who haven’t donated yet a chance to do it, at least
I’m sorry it’s this way but I physically can’t do anything to speed it up, sorry. Then again, after a two months wait, what is 3 days And at least you’ve got the PDS proto
This is going well, nice work!
For whatever reason I can;t get it to swap trick properly. By that I mean: I always get the white box of doom in the bottom right corner which sometimes used to happen when I played by burnt copy of the full game before I got a real copy. The WBOD usually coincides with disc read and sound problems. I’m guessing the screwed up title music is the first sign of that. Might be my rubbish CDRs but I’ve never had obvious problems with using cheap media on Saturn before. Anyone else get this?
There are heaps of big and little things missing and prototype weirdness, but this all that I’ve found interestingish so far. Instead of holding B to move the dragon, you press right shoulder to start and left shoulder to stop. pressing the right shoulder repeatedly steps up the speed. In the final thing I don’t think you had any control over speed despite the increments displayed on the HUD (unless I’ve been doing it wrong!). This ‘handsfree’ method actually changes the pace of the ‘dungeon’ sections quite a bit. Instead of stopping to click on things I tend to do it as I’m moving, feels a bit more ‘on-rails’.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they only changed that to slow down the pace a bit (because it’s short enough anyway), rather than just because it’s weird.
Well the WBOD you talked about would appear on my legal version of Saga as well. It wasn’t always there, only at times.
I can’t wait to try the prototype out. Tomorrow I will exhume my Saturn.
Confirmation number: 37H704734B4051406.
$25, but better than nothing. You can combine it with Gehn’s $25 for an even $50. =P
I just played through the whole first prototype (Panzer Dragoon Saga (Prototype - Sep 16, 1997)) using SSF (the emulator works fine for the most part). Here are the differences that I noticed:
Intro with Atolm’s theme as the music before the title screen is the same, but the music seems a bit glitchy (the glitches were possibly due to using SSF).
Title screen is the Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG title screen, with options for New Game and Continue (Continue greyed out until a save point is used).
The intro FMV is the same as in the final game, but the game restarts back to the title screen when Edge first encounters Azel in the mine. Also there is no sound. There doesn’t seem to be sound in any of the FMVs besides the one before the title screen. When I skipped this intro the second time it goes straight to the movie of the Divine Visitor reviving Edge. There is no name entry screen.
The first walking around section is basically the same, except the Caravan music plays in the background. Also, the far left pillar only gives you one item instead of two, but I’m not sure what it is (can’t select items on the menu screen, and it’s in Japanese).
Pause Screen - This looks the same as in the final game, however all submenus are disabled with the exception of the second menu which shows your dragon. This means that you can’t heal outside of battle or leave to go to the campsite.
FMV - Edge meets the dragon. No differences besides the lack of sound.
Above the Excavation Site - Edge doesn’t say anything right at the start of the level (“Now that I’ve got a dragon…”). Interesting controls - right trigger moves the dragon forward and he keeps going until you press the left trigger to stop. Down is up and up is down by default (similar to PD1 controls) and there isn’t a way to change them. The save point at the end of the map is still there, however the menu option don’t seem to do anything when you select it. It does, however, create a save file in the background, but you get no confirmation on screen of this.
When you go through the door at the end of the first valley level there is some white Japanese text on a blue background. This could either be some sort of story explanation or, more likely, a message there for a beta tester.
Excavation Site #4 (second walking round section). Again, the caravan music plays in the background. Is it just me or is everything darker in this level?
FMV - Edges captain dies. No differences besides the lack of sound.
Excavation Site #4 flying section - in the tutorial there is only 5 different options, about half of what there is in the final game. When you get the Field Map of the area, there is no way to view it. There is no save point opposite the wind fans.
The battles seem very similar the final game, however on completion it says “BATTLE RESULT”, rather than the usual Excellent, Great Fight, etc. I have seen the Battle Result text in Green, Yellow and Purple which I think may correspond to the different rankings (Excellent, etc). However, I was getting purple writing on some battles that I didn’t get hit or take a long time in, so I’m not sure how accurate this is. When the dragon is attacked in battle there are red borders at the top and bottom of the screen instead of the standard black cut scene borders. Berserk attacks are all on one screen (they aren’t divided into separate screens for defense, attack, extra, etc. The “Heal” berserk attack requires two bars instead of one.
Baldor Queen - this boss has the standard mutated monster music rather than the mutated subboss music. A sound repeats in the background until the first Baldors are hatched.
Arachnoth - Weird airplane noises at the start of the cut scene before the boss appears. There are also red borders during cut scenes that take place at the start and end of a battle sequence, however the borders aren’t red when you’re attacking the enemy.
Cut scene where Edge meets Gash - heaps of echoing, glitches. This may partially be caused by SSF, although the echoing definitely isn’t there in the final version when using SSF.
World Map - Seems much the same in layout, although there a lots of details missing. You can’t choice to see “Craymen’s Fleet Advance…”
FMV - Arrival at Cainus. No differences besides the lack of sound.
Desert Campsite - By the tent there is what appears to be the music box that Rhoda gives you later in the game. However, it doesn’t do anything when you select it it appears and disappears. Also, the dragon is always asleep (the lazy creature!) it doesn’t matter if it’s day or night. Nothing happens when you select him. Gash doesn’t provide a whole heap of information (About the Desert, etc), just a few lines when you select him and there’s no scene where he pleads you to take him across the desert when you try to leave the camp, you can leave straight away it seems (although you may have to talk to him first; I had already done this).
Garil Desert - a mixture of Stryders and Naynds can be found on the first and second maps… as far as I can remember there were never any battles involving both until you reached the Blue Ruins. Also, the stryders, naynds, and hoppers have a yellow icon next to their name when the battle begins - if I recall correctly this colour was normally reserved for subbosses. It is light blue when fighting the plunger, however another time it was a red Craymen enemy symbol, and another time the normal green mutated monster symbol so I don’t know what’s going on there. It seems these icons are a bit random. The Lathum has the same music as the Baldor Queen (normal mutated monster music). The secret tunnel down to where you can get the Mauler is still there, however these is no way to equip it (if indeed the item you get is the Mauler in this version).
Gigra - The roof of the cave turns bright green at times. This appears to be a glitch that was fixed in the final version of the game. A blue screen with white writing appears again after this battle.
There’s no farewell to Gash cut scene after the desert, you’re taken straight to the campsite. When you exit the campsite, there’s no way of accessing the Caravan from the map, but if you try to entering the camp again you’re given a menu choice. The first option takes you to the Caravan, and second back to the campsite.
There are a few glitches in the Caravan, e.g not loading some sound files (and displaying an error message on the screen). Interestingly, you can speak to An’jou before you even go in the tent (he’s sitting by the campfire at night). You’re not given an option to talk with the shop keeper (I seem to recall that you could in the final version, once the Caravaners decide that you’re not with Craymen), just options to Buy or Leave (no middle option).
The Forbidden Zone - there’s no morphing tutorial when you first enter the level. When battling the Lazara, it quite easy to get behind them and fire a few rounds of lasers before they have a chance to put their shields up (you can completely destroy them before they put their shields up). Also, I swear the Lazara make the same noise that is heard when you defeat a monster in Shining the Holy Ark - did anyone else notice that?
Craymen’s Flagship - this fight seems a lot easier than in the final game. I don’t think I even got hit once, and I defeated it really fast.
FMV - arrival of Atolm. The same, but no sound.
Atolm - Atolm’s health decreases rapidly and then the fight is suddenly over before it even begun! I didn’t even get a chance to fire at him. Another blue screen appears, this time prompting you to enter disc 2. This is as far as the prototype goes. The game automatically saves at this point and you can’t go any further.
Overall, although nothing hugely different, there were enough differences to make playing through this prototype at least an interesting experience. I’m looking forward to trying the other ones.
I’ve updated the main page. Screenshots 
Nice. I still haven’t had the chance to play this yet, but some comments…
The odd trigger-based system survived right up to the Japanese demo disc for the game (this one). I’m not sure if it’s exactly as people have described here, but it’s definitely the same idea.
I think this is a bug in SSF: I remember someone posting about this happening when playing the finished game, and a similar thing happens in the forest level of Zwei.
Also, this screenshot shows the Dermot’s Ranch campsite: I don’t think that camp is used outside of the Box Game in the finished game. (?)
That makes sense. When I have a chance, I’ll check the final version to see if it occurs there as well.
Yeah, I think you might be right. I don’t recall seeing it at that point either.
I’d quite interested in compiling a list of differences sound in each prototype (with screenshots) and compiling them into a section on TWotA. Perhaps we could combine our findings once you’ve had a chance to play through the prototypes yourself?
Just before we get ahead of ourselves, I’d like to point out that we’re only $50 away from securing the rest of the protoypes. Let’s not get too dizzy over the Saga one and forget there’s more goodness to come!
